Paperless Society: Fact or Fiction - Thesis Example

A Paperless Society: Fact or Fiction? A Literature Review of Paperless Technology Completed by Your name University name 15th April 2006 Index Abstract Introduction Discussion Conclusion References Appendix Paper less Society: Fact or Fiction? Abstract The paper is about the existence of computer society which is now growing with fast pace and in near future it is been predicted by most of the people that future society will be a paperless society, and digital media will conquer the world by its advantages and benefits. The aspects are also been explained in terms of the usage and consumption of paper through out years and possibilities of complete paperless society were also been discussed in this paper, although that people expect that there will be a paperless society but due to the significance and usage of paper it has been seen as a utopian thinking to create such a society. Introduction Today, when the world is no more called by its own name but known as a global village, people are getting the fastest and easiest luxuries and services they never imagined before, where the making of the silicon bodies and cloning is common as making an egg for breakfast. People are forgetting the importance of originality in their lives, the information technology and the use of microchip is so common in our lives that it’s now impossible to breathe without it. Internet, e-mails, automated telephone systems, ipods, palm tops, laptops and IBM think pads are the most major instances from the digital media world. The use of printed papers got popularity from the mid of 19th century in USA and in other European countries. Till now, people are getting dependent gradually on this technology. If this fast pace technology will spread like this in our lives then no doubt, this can be predictable that after few years paper will be left for wrapping and cleaning in our homes only, because not only in schools but in offices the use of paper is now gradually diminishing with time due to the fact, that employees can work more conveniently and rapidly with the use of laptops and PC’s on their tables, other wise they feel over burdened just by seeing the piles and bundles of papers and files on their desks. The world is going towards the more automated side, so it is not very obvious that what factors will determine that society should be completely paperless or we should stick to the old myths and originality. It requires a whole deep discussion to give any statement about the paperless society. Discussion The paper is one of the important object people usually use in their lives, they use it or destroy it as easily as they can, without understanding the importance of it. Paper is use for the purpose of reading, writing, and printing etc. In fact, it is a mean through which one can communicate with others. Mails, newspapers, drafts, cheques, magazines, books, notices, brochures, packages, boxes, bills, posters, even the ballot in elections are made up of paper. But now internet shopping and services gives the best way to the people to consume less paper and communicate through the monitor which is now available in every shop. Now people do not have to wait for postmen and hawkers, they can check there emails and see the current affairs in one click, now they do not need to go to grocery stores they can buy online, now they can cash the money online and do their work on their personal computers. This era believed in everything in handy form. And that is why from lifestyle to the workplace, from schools till universities all work is done through this medium. All the institutions and organizations in society have their own interest and objectives, due to the world wide tough competition between the countries, the employers are more concerned about their productivity and benefits. Even in job vacancies, the first thing for the eligibility of the employee is that he should be well aware about computer handling. The world is changing its path towards information technology, all cultural, educational, professional, societal and technical fractions of country are now based on the means of storage, processing and transformation of data. For the expansion of business and productivity, the technology plays a key role, for the effective communicability, socio economic growth and reliability in business scenario, the technological informatization is changing the shape and character of world’s culture. Now it’s impossible to have an office setup without LAN computers because in offices, certain laptops, printers, scanners, think pads, ipods are in use of the employees, with which they work in more faster and easier way. In schools, students browse and note their lectures and home works in their PC’s and find more easy to work on it at home, they find it more easy to do the assignments by the easy browsing of the required topic, and this aspect was evidenced by the a literature review, that in 1999, Ohio House bill 33 was considered as law in which the decree allowed students to use “electronic textbooks” in their schools and the office administration was responsible to schedule and renew the text according to the requirements for the students. This is not the only example, or the research conducted but there are several other instances where the usage of technology increases the factor of paperless society. Likewise, for working persons it is easy to save their schedules and plan out or complete their work in a systematic way. For professionals and officials also it is convenient to use the technology to make their business successful. Besides these aspects of technology, there are several other factors which influence the use of paper. This is a fact that people are using computers more and using paper less for their work but on the other side the printed version required a lot more papers then usual. Although the paperless era is still far away from today’s society, so people have only one choice to use paper in their work, because it is still an assumption. In concern with the assumption, the supposition will always be judged by the merits or demerits, an object can bring to the society. Usually person wakes up with a cup of coffee and the newspaper in hand, now imagine if the paper will be eliminated from this picture what object will be substituted, a LAPTOP?, this will also be acceptable but what about the hawker whose bread is connected with the newspaper but not with a machine. Apart from emotionality, there are several people whose work has been substituted with the electronic devices. In this industrialized mechanical world, machines are taking place of the objects which served a lot previously and paper is one of the objects which served people for thousands of years. This is true that digital world brought a very modern technology and gave the large production benefits to the people. In fact, the electronic media is the solid reason of the prosperity of any country but in future the lack of man power and natural material will be in danger. The computer era is considered as the era of economy but it is also not false that by computers and digital media the consumption of paper is increased and this was accepted by the Association of American Paper and Forests, which is an industry trade group, they said that the computer era will bring them a good business because of tons of business of paper they will sell. Another person named S.P. Richards an executive of Atlanta paper Supply Company was also accepting the fact that they are nowadays selling more papers than they sold and they predict that their business will expand rapidly in few coming years. Now this kind of thinking and prediction is right because of the fact that people are consuming paper more then before, and the truth is paper is the most reliable and easiest resource for the people. Because they can not rely on a machine for their life long years but they can save the papers for their lives. If the aspects should be discussed deeply then the factors are clear that answering machine, telephones, pagers, PC’s, palm tops, and other computer soft wares which are making them more sluggish and mentally exhausted, now office work and other jobs are targeted to the monotony of work, the division of labor is also becoming less because machines has taken all the responsibility. Unemployment is becoming an issue day by day and people are suffering from the agony of non satisfied job. The demerits of a paperless society are unlimited because globalization is giving people a tough time to get success. The paper consumption is increased in urban areas because of the printing reason but otherwise, there is no other area which can be included to cause its production increment. All the above discussion can be proved by the estimations conducted by literature review by Dave Wallace and Cristina Gonzalez in 10th October 2005, where they mentioned clearly that production of paper decreased till 90,000 jobs in 1998 due to unemployment. Because of the fact that paper production employment included division of work in two parts like: pulp and paper mills and the other part is consisted of paper product manufactured objects. Obviously, the decrease in production of paper causes the Unemployment for those people who work under this labor division. Below is the graph, giving the clear picture of employment ratios in Washington from year 1990 till 2005, now this can be the realistic picture of how much people are getting advantages and disadvantages from the beginning of paper less society. Here it has been clearly mentioned that in 1990 the population had a high rate of job vacancies but due to the advancement and technological changes the expanding population needed high speed work and production which can be only possible by the machines. Figure 1: Washington Employment Indexed to Recession’s Trough 1990-2005 Source: Employment Security Department, Seasonally Adjusted Series The above information clearly showed the fact that decrease in paper production not only reduce the long lasting convenience people have but also it can descend the society’s economy and man power which will be extremely treacherous. In this modern world, now there is a shortage of man power resources, mineral, capacities, qualified resources and investments because the system is now relying on the digital world, and believing that they only require this automatic objects to run the structure but the fallacy can only be applicable to hypothesize the dreams. The reasons behind the provocation of media and digital objects could be reinforced by the sellers and media person, for their benefits they advertise certain mechanical objects which are not necessarily important in one’s life. In certain places its individual’s own forgetfulness about the origins that he wants to have a more luxurious life now and he intentionally wants to use those things which are giving him temporary convenience but in the long term if one can see the facts, he will easily realize that the machines are the tools and instruments which can be rusted, torn off, it can be broken, or switched off after the electricity absence. But paper do not have these types of problems, one can write on it even in the load shading, it does not get rusted after a long time too, one can save it for years and years in the cup boards or other places. In the above graph the ratios are also the evidence to the fact that machines are taking the place of humans, and may be it will result in afterwards shortage of labor and man skills. This is the common phenomenon of every society that whenever and where ever people get chance for the shortcuts they blindly follow the paths, ignoring the fact that that thing can be harmful or can have negative effects on them, likewise if here the aspect of digital media is concerned the people blindly go for their comfort and fast space life. It is not completely true that its only there fault but they can have the advantage of that object as per requirement, “excessive use of any thing can be dangerous”, if they follow this old statement then may be the use of paper and technology both can successfully work together. In fact, in today’s life people are taking advantage of both of the things, machines and electronic tools are working in their areas and paper has its own value, the reason why the focus is so much on paper is behind the reality, that from the beginning of communication men start interaction with symbols and then use different things to write and convey their messages. Before they even used stones, leaves, leather, bones and sand to write, now the important thing was these all things were natural and does not relate with any kind of technology, they were all from surroundings and they were available in access, they did not get rusted and did not switched off. Paper was also made by the material of trees and the idea behind that material was to make a substance which can be universal and can be easily available in market, China was the first country to export the paper material and now the business is still non stop. It’s true that one can not deny the magnitude of the paper, because in modern world where one can easily get everything just by one click it’s also important to maintain those machines. Papers are considered as the cheaper product for buying according to consumers. But sellers view is opposite to it, they feel that it’s less profitable business. Of course, in comparison to it if computer devices are placed they are far more expensive then papers. One more thing is also important which is concern to the governmental revenues and investments, the yearly maintenance and the rescheduling of this technology can cost millions or billions of dollars, and the purchasing or substituting of worn out machine is also costly to the employers, but on the other hand the paper do not need any maintenance issues it only require to pile it up properly, and its completely cheap for the consumers and for the sellers too. According to some recent researches it was been observed that it does not matter now that how the device is expensive, now people are able to afford the devices in any prices because of the increasing competition held between the production market. Now in banking, economic matters, stock exchange, marketing, selling and buying, making of products, advertising, business expansion programs, planning of projects, communication and executions all are carried out only through the use of new technology. Now E-marketing and E-banking are the common words. The whole societal structure is now getting addicted to the modernization. People are forgetting about the personal skills and efforts. The issue is not about the demerits of technology, instead it’s the most serious matter of today’s world, and the digital mediums are making the world more dependent on the temporary machines. People are forgetting that they made the machines, machines did not make them, and so they should not follow the modern world blindly instead they can bring out benefits for their work and can use the combination of the natural resources, machines and advance instruments so that they can not be reliant on one necessity but can flourish their work with creativity and security. Conclusion It is true that by technology one can reduce the work load and increase the yearly production but it is also true that by eliminating the raw materials and man power and by ignoring the fact that people can not enter the paperless society because it is completely a utopian dream which is away from reality. Because not only paper serve as a communicator in our jobs but also it is the source of employment for many people and besides that paper’s significance is not ignorable. References Anthony. Blair, Robertson and Barrows. Matthew. “Paper’s Popularity persists”. 18 June 2000. South Coast Today. . Instone. Karin, Huddleston. Jim. “A Paperless Society: reality or myth?” July 28. 2004. Bowling Green State University. http://www.bright.net/~jhud/638Reviewfinal.pdf. Jura. Jackie. “Paperless Society”. October 17, 2001. New York Times. http://www.orwelltoday.com/paperless.shtml Romano, Frank J. (1999) “the less paper, not paper-less, society”. Electronic Publishing 23(1). Retrieved July 13, 2004 from EbscoHost. Simic. Nino. “The Paper less Society is a myth”. Autumn 2002. Published by Oresund IT Magazine. . Wallace. Dave and Gonzalez. Cristina. “Getting paid to make paper”. 10 October. 2005. . Appendix Read More